[5] In August 2023, he released the single "Rich Men North of Richmond" independently, which debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 and made Lunsford the first artist to achieve this without any prior charting history in any form.

[6] A singer of the country-folk genre,[7] Lunsford adopted his grandfather's name "Oliver Anthony" as his stage name in homage to the Depression era in which he lived.

[24] "Aint Gotta Dollar", a song about self-reliance without spending money,[25] and ranked Anthony's fourth best by Taste of Country,[26] reached number 1 on the Viral 50 list in Spotify[27] and No.

"[3] Anthony's second documented public concert, in Moyock, North Carolina, opened in what Billboard described as "a unique fashion", with him reading a passage from the Bible.

[30] The video of Anthony performing "Rich Men North of Richmond" was uploaded to YouTube on August 8, 2023,[12] and immediately went viral.

Billboard described it as taking on "politicians, taxes, welfare and other issues from a struggling working man's perspective",[31] and various news sources described themes in it as anti-establishment, conservative, or conspiratorial.

[14][12][32] It was further promoted by personalities including singer-songwriter John Rich, podcaster Joe Rogan, and conservative commentators Jack Posobiec and Matt Walsh.

[33] On August 16, Billboard talked of a music industry "feeding frenzy" for his signature, reporting that one label head had told them, "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before."

[27][3] On August 17, Anthony wrote further, "People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers.

"[3] Draven Riffe of Radiowv told Billboard in an interview published August 19 that he is Anthony's co-manager, together with Brian Prentice.

[3][6][49][52][53] Anthony dropped out of high school in 2010[54] at the age of 17, and later secured a General Educational Development diploma;[55] he went on to work in industrial jobs in North Carolina and Virginia.